Frances+Reinhardt

On July 17, 1917, 34-year-old nurse Frances Reinhardt died at Chicago's County Hospital from septic blood poisoning caused by an abortion which police said had been perpetrated by Dr. A. E. Thomas. However, further investigation revealed that a non-physician identified as W. Thomas had appropriated the name from a retired doctor.

W. Thomas had been able to practice medicine without a license for several years until his ruse was exposed after his arrest for Frances' death. The real Dr. A. E. Thomas's brother suspected that the arrested "doctor" had stolen his identity and reported this to the board of health.

The Chicago Daily Tribune notes, "Instead of being a pompous, suave, well fed and dressed charlatan like other quacks who have fallen into the meshes of the law recently, he turned out to be a shaking, wretched, and miserable victim of morphine, whose condition when he was captured bordered on hysteria."

Upon arrest, Thomas admitted the ruse to police.

Though he was held by the Coroner for Frances' death, the charges were dropped for a reason I have been unable to determine. I have also found no evidence that anybody else was arrested for the crime.

The real Dr. Thomas, meanwhile, expressed pity for W. Thomas and indicated that he would try to contact him and offer assistance in dealing with his woeful condition.

Frances was a newlywed; she had only been married since June 20 to a man ten years her junior.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good.

In fact, due to improvements in addressing these problems, maternal mortality in general (and abortion mortality with it) fell dramatically in the 20th Century, decades before Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion across America.

For more information about early 20th Century abortion mortality, see [|Abortion Deaths 1910-1919].



 For more on pre-legalization abortion, see [|The Bad Old Days of Abortion]

Sources:
 * Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database
 * Death certificate
 * "Dr. A. E. Thomas Held to Jury on Murder Charge," //Chicago Daily Tribune//, Jul. 22, 1917
 * "Arrested Quack Admits Robbing Doctor of Name," //Chicago Daily Tribune//, Jan. 6, 1918





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